Love Potions, Blacks, and Acceptable Transfiguration Essays
by headisspinning
Summary: "Amortentia?" she finally asked, gobsmacked. "What could Sirius Black possibly want with a love potion?" He smirked wolfishly and tisked, "Ah ah ah. My motive wasn't part of the bargain, Phipps."


**Disclaimer: Y'all know...this is purely for my own entertainment, I own nothing.  
I took some liberties with certain things, like the details of love potions and Amortentia (I have no idea if they brew it in class in 6th year. I know Slughorn showed them, but they never _actually_ brew it so...)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Phipps! Oi, Phipps!" Winnie was so preoccupied with quickly scurrying down the dark, empty corridor in order to make it back to the common room without encountering Filch that she barely registered someone hollering her name from behind. It was only when she felt a sharp tug on the sleeve of her robe that she whipped around with a flourish, instinctively drawing her wand.

"Woah, Phipps, no need for violence." It took her a moment, amongst the shadows that had grown long in the dim late-night lighting and her previous reverie, to realize it was Sirius Black standing before her and not group of ill-intentioned Slytherins looking to take advantage of a lone Gryffindor in a deserted hallway.

"Um," she said, squinting her eyes and wondering why he'd stopped her and where he'd come from. She'd been the only one left in the library for the last couple of hours, wrestling unsuccessfully with a particularly difficult Defence essay. Barely two months into Sixth Year and Winnie already felt overwhelmed by her coursework. "Did you need something? I'd like to get back to the common room without a detention."

She glanced up and down the hallway, straining her ears to make sure they were still alone. He watched, eyes shining, and she was fairly certain he was laughing at her. She set her jaw defiantly.

"In fact, you were just the person I was looking for. What a coincidence, running into you here." He gestured widely with his arms and the way he said it made it sound like it was not, in fact, a coincidence at all. She wished he'd keep his voice down.

Her brain still felt strained from her essay, and between keeping an ear out for Prefects and her confusion over why Black had been searching the castle for her, a dull ache had blossomed near her left temple.

"Right. Whatever you need, can't it wait until we've made it to the common room?"

"Actually, Phipps, it's quite opportune that there's no one around. I need to discuss something rather... _sensitive_. In _confidence_."

She had spoken to Sirius Black less than a dozen times in the last six years. Most of them had been trivial things, like, "Good match yesterday!" or "Have you a spare bit of parchment I could borrow?" She hadn't the foggiest what he could possibly need to discuss with her _in confidence_ after hours in the dark. At her perplexed look, he went on.

"You're the best in our House at potions."

This did nothing to dispel her confusion for two reasons: she had no clue why discussing potions would need to be done in secret, and she wasn't the best in their House at potions.

"I think you're confusing me with Lily," she said slowly.

A sheepish grin crossed his face. "Okay, let me rephrase. You're the best in our House at potions who wouldn't love a good reason to chuck me in detention for the rest of term."

"I don't think Lily -" Winnie began to defend, knowing Lily and Black were at least friendly with one another on occasion.

"Look, Phipps," he cut her off. "The favor I'm about to ask you for requires skill and discretion. It's not exactly...permissible."

Winnie's eyebrow quirked, intrigued despite herself.

"You want _my_ help? What, not good enough at potions yourself?"

His eyes glinted at the jibe, seemingly impressed with her challenging tone.

"It is with great reluctance that I concede that my potions skills are not as finessed as they need to be for this particular task."

She mulled it over for a moment, working through his excessively flowery language, seemingly forgetting about Filch and the Prefects. It wasn't everyday that Sirius Black admitted he wasn't good at something.

"A difficult potion that could get me in a lot of trouble, huh? What's in it for me?"

His eyes widened ever so briefly as if he hadn't been expecting that response before his eyebrows scrunched together, deep in thought.

"Er- the personal satisfaction that comes from being charitable?"

Her eyebrows rose, unimpressed. He understood her nonverbal message. _Try again, Black._

He sighed, realizing this might be harder than just flashing his pretty eyes and saying 'please.'

"Fine. I'll do your transfig essays for a month."

She considered this. It was a tempting offer. He was the best in school at Transfiguration, and she was decidedly not. It was her worst subject. _But_ , she thought to herself, _it can't hurt to see how far I can stretch this._

"Two."

His lips twitched. "Let's call it six weeks."

He stuck out his hand as if the deal was done, but she wasn't quite ready to give in. She ignored his outstretched hand.

"Fine, six weeks. I want top marks."

His head dropped back, exposing his long, pretty neck, and he groaned to the ceiling.

When he looked at her again, it was with a determined silver stare.

"Two months. I'll pull you up to an A."

Despite being slightly put out that Black somehow knew she was hovering between a D and P in Transfiguration, she allowed herself a sly grin. She wasn't exactly sure what she'd gotten herself into, but she was about to pass her hardest subject without lifting a finger. It was worth it.

She held her hand out this time.

"Deal."

His hand was pleasantly warm and large when it grasped hers in a steady shake.

"So do you care to elaborate exactly what kind of potion you need out of me?" she urged.

She was realizing his grey eyes were very expressive. They seemed to sharpen with dangerous glee as he answered her, mouth twisting into a competitive grin.

"Amortentia."

A ringing silence followed his admission. His eyes were fixed on hers, gauging her reaction. She could hear nothing but the faint _drip drip drip_ of the ceiling somewhere in the distance.

"Amortentia?," she finally asked, gobsmacked. "What could Sirius Black possibly want with a _love potion_?"

He smirked wolfishly and tisked, "Ah ah ah. My motive wasn't part of the bargain, Phipps."

"Amortentia takes _eight weeks_ to brew correctly. It's incredibly finicky and could go morbidly bad if a mistake is made. Not to mention the _ethics_ of it all! I happen to believe rather strongly in a person's right to make their own decisions about who they love!"

Black winced at her tone. In her disbelief, she had gone a bit shouty without realizing.

"Listen, Phipps," he attempted to appease her protests. "I'll be writing your essays for eight weeks, so really the timing couldn't be more perfect. And I realize the difficulty of the potion, that's why I asked someone I knew could handle it."

His flattery didn't hurt. When he noticed her soften, he plowed on.

"And I promise it's not going to be used for a long period of time or to do any permanent damage. I just need one little batch from you and then you can wash your hands of all love potions, Blacks, and Acceptable Transfiguration essays."

Her eyes blazed mutinously at his insinuation that she couldn't get an A without him. His mouth rested in an easy, teasing grin.

"I could pass Transfig without your help," she mumbled, though with the way the class had been going so far this term, she wasn't sure that was true.

He was looking at her expectantly, and she suddenly understood why so many people claimed to be in love with him. He sure was something to look at. She bit her lip. Love potions were banned at Hogwarts, and while that rarely stopped students from making and using them, Amortentia was a different story altogether. It wasn't just an alarmingly difficult potion, it was also dangerous. Even _if_ she got everything exactly right, it could still be used to do something terrible. But Black had said it would be short-lived and ultimately harmless to whoever he was planning to use it on. So as long as she didn't get caught...

"Some of the ingredients will be hard to get. They won't be available in the school stores."

His face shifted cockily and he waved her off. "Ah, don't worry your little head about that, Phipps. Just write me up a list and I'll get whatever you need, no problem."

Something about his easy confidence made up her mind.

"Okay." she agreed, and then she said, "okay," once more, to convince herself.

The smile that lit up his face when she agreed seemed to make all the risk worth it. She couldn't help but smile in return.

"I'll get you a list of ingredients tomorrow. Don't make me regret this, Black."

"Not a chance, Phipps, not a chance."

"Can we please get back to the common room now?" she pleaded, turning and taking a few steps in that direction. "Mrs. Norris is going to come slithering around that corner any second."

But Black hadn't followed. Instead, he was walking backwards, still facing her but moving the opposite direction, his steps a slow swagger, clearly having no intention of turning in any time soon. He'd pulled a blank piece of folded parchment from his robes and flashed her one last lazy smirk.

"Business calls, Phipps. I'll be seeing you tomorrow. Sleep tight!"

With a final, sarcastic salute, he turned away, whistling as he strutted back the way she had come. Winnie watched after him until she could no longer hear his echoing whistle, and then turned herself to sneak back to the common room. Lost in thought, she reached the portrait hole in what felt like record time. A large part of her was completely convinced she had just made a massive mistake agreeing to help Black with his schemes. But she couldn't deny the tiny bit of excitement that was bubbling just under the surface of her doubt.

She quietly slipped into bed, careful not to disturb her dorm-mates. The last thing she thought of as she dozed off was a pair of mischievous grey eyes and how they made trouble seem awfully inviting.

* * *

"MERLIN, I _swear_ those two are nothing but trouble!" Lily slammed her Charms textbook onto the table hard enough to rattle goblets of pumpkin juice and make Mary jump so hard she dropped her fork with a clatter.

Winnie pulled her eyes from the parchment she was writing on to observe her friend's scarlet cheeks and furrowed brows. A glance down the table was all it took to know exactly who she was referring to. Potter was sitting a few people down, gazing dejectedly into his eggs while Black, barely able to sit upright across the table, howled with laughter. Mary was watching them too.

"I don't know what you said, Lils, but it must've been merciless," she chirped.

Lily returned a tiny smile, smug and satisfied, and sat down.

"What are you working on, Win?" she asked as she spread jam on a piece of toast.

Winnie had been prepared for this question. "Just a letter to mum," she hummed, finishing the last ingredient (hair of the subject of desire) and rolling the parchment. She took a slow sip of her coffee before releasing her most convincing groan. Dorcas, who had just dropped into the seat to Winnie's left, gave her a concerned look.

"Alright, Win?"

"I left my Charms book upstairs," she sighed. She gathered her things quickly, being sure to keep the rolled parchment within easy reach, and folded a napkin around a blueberry scone to eat on the go.

"I'll meet you all in class." Her friends barely glanced her way as she bustled from the Great Hall, which was fortunate because halfway down the Gryffindor table, she subtly locked eyes with Sirius Black and gave him a minute but significant nod towards the Entrance Hall. He returned the nod and she walked away, smiling to herself as she heard him make some exclamation to his friends behind her back about having to step out for a moment.

Winnie hovered off to the side of the near-empty Entrance Hall, close to a broom cupboard doorway that would serve as decent cover. Black followed her out a few minutes later and spotted her. Winnie ducked into the doorway and found herself grateful for Black's guile as he made his way over to meet her without drawing any unnecessary attention.

"A lovely morning to you, Phipps," he chimed, taking care to keep his voice between the two of them.

"Black," she greeted with a terse nod.

He was watching her closely with those laughing, silver eyes again, and she found herself disgruntled that they stood so close to one another.

"You know, Phipps, the two of us can have a conversation out in the open. All this secrecy is just going to make people unnecessarily curious."

Winnie, who had been leaning around the doorway to triple-check their surroundings, jerked her head back to look at him.

"No!" she exclaimed, and then slapped her hand over her mouth when she realized she had been loud enough to give away their position. Quickly, she went on, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "My friends will catch on quicker than a niffler in a gold mine if they see me talking to you."

His eyebrows rose slowly in amused disbelief. "You mean to say...if your friends get a glimpse of us having a conversation, their minds will immediately jump to you helping me brew a banned potion for nefarious purposes?"

Winnie scowled. "Ok, smart arse. I _mean_ to say if they suddenly see us acting like best mates after six years, they're bound to get suspicious. And a suspicious Lily is something I'd rather avoid."

He held up his hands in surrender and chuckled. "Okay, okay, whatever you say, Phipps."

Satisfied, she reached into the front of her robes for the roll of parchment, shoving it into his hands.

"Here."

He scrambled to get a proper grip and unfurled it, giving it a once over and mumbling to himself. Winnie watched his eyes flick down the list.

"Simple enough, then," Black concluded. He looked back up at her. "Give me two days."

Winnie was trying to stop being so surprised at his self assuredness.

"Right," she agreed.

He re-rolled the parchment, pulling his wand from his robes to give it a silent tap so it magically sealed itself closed. She found herself annoyed at the ease with which he used a nonverbal spell. She pursed her lips at his wand as if it had just called her a rude name.

"We're going to need a location. Somewhere that won't be stumbled upon accidentally while the potion brews," she continued, still glaring at the wand.

He nodded contemplatively, stowing the offensive piece of wood back in this pocket.

"I've got somewhere in mind. I have to iron out the details though, so I'll let you know in two days." He gave the rolled parchment in his hand a jiggle for emphasis.

Winnie couldn't help the small, thrilled smile that formed on her lips.

"Until then, Black."

He grinned in return. "Phipps."

And then he was gone, whistling again back into the Great Hall.

Winnie found herself distracted in Charms, not realizing that she had been producing a jet of hot steam from the tip of her wand instead of the water it was supposed to be.

"Winnie!" Mary's shrill voice caught Winnie's attention.

"Oh, bloody hell." She put her wand down, but the damage had already been done. The steam had risen in her face and caused her curly hair to grow twice the size it was on a good day.

"You seem awfully distracted today, Win. Is everything okay?"

Winnie was usually grateful for Mary's acute awareness. It made her a gifted confidant when Winnie needed someone to listen. In this instance, however, Winnie wished her friend just slightly more clueless.

"Everything's fine, Mary," Winnie reassured, waving her wand around the crown of her head and muttering the spell she used every morning to tame her locks. When they were once again under control, she turned to her unconvinced friend fully.

"Really," Winnie maintained, "it's just an off day. Had some trouble getting out of bed this morning and I haven't felt quite awake since. I think it's the weather."

Mary glanced out the window. Hogwarts had been plagued with heavy rainfall for the third day in a row and Winnie wasn't lying when she said it put her in a funk. Sure, it wasn't the true reason she'd been distracted a moment ago, but three days of steel grey skies had indeed made her groggy.

Thankfully, Mary hummed her agreement and seemed to accept Winnie's excuse.

"I think there's a bug going around Ravenclaw. I heard Dirk Cresswell say half a dozen students have been sent to Madame Pomfrey for Pepper-Up this week."

Winnie made a noncommittal noise of acknowledgement. "I just hope it clears up before the match this weekend."

Quidditch was always a good way to change the subject when Mary was around. She groaned in response.

"Don't get me started. Potter has had us practicing in it every night this week. He keeps saying 'if there's a chance we're playing in these conditions, we have to be practicing in these conditions!'"

Winnie laughed at her exaggerated imitation. The first match of the year was to be held this Saturday, and everyone in the school was hoping the weather broke beforehand. Winnie found commentating particularly difficult in extreme conditions like these; it was hard to keep track of the quaffle.

"Either way," Mary continued, "I'm just looking forward to the chance to squash Talkalot under the heel of my Quidditch boot."

"Oi, watch that, Macdonald!" Mary and Winnie both looked up in surprise as James himself had been walking past their desk and overheard the end of their conversation. "I'm not losing to Slytherin on penalties again, you hear me? I appreciate the passion, just don't get too carried away, yeah?"

Mary gave him a sarcastic salute, "Sure thing, Captain Potter, sir!"

He ignored her obvious sass and turned his attention to Winnie. "You're still on the mic this year, right, Winnie? No one's tried to steal it again?"

Winnie had to laugh. He was referring to a rather notorious incident from fourth year, when Cal Hoppenstand had decided he'd do a better job commentating Quidditch matches. Winnie had been forced to split the matches with the Ravenclaw, though that only lasted for the first three as the rest of the school grew frustrated with his choppy narration and unnecessarily long winded explanations. It all came to blows in the Great Hall one fateful morning when he implied Winnie couldn't be a competent Quidditch commentator because she was Muggle-Born. A nasty hex had found him in the hospital wing for three days and her in detention for three weeks. It had been worth it. Hoppenstand conceded and no one had attempted to take the mic from her since.

"Only way I'm giving up that mic is if I'm dead, James," Winnie responded sweetly.

James sniggered and wandered back to the desk he shared with Lupin.

"Do you see what I mean, though?" Mary carried on complaining about her captain. "Merlin's Beard, it's like he doesn't ever take anything seriously until he gets on the pitch and then all his intensity comes out in one go."

Before Winnie had the chance to respond, a sudden, resounding _BANG_ shook the classroom. Instinctively, Winnie screeched and threw her hands over head. Students everywhere started coughing and wheezing as a thick, orange smoke filled the room.

"What-" Winnie was cut off by a series of hacking coughs. When she regained her voice, she wailed, "What the _hell_ was that?"

Students around her began buzzing with questions as the orange smoke slowly cleared, and somewhere on the other end of the classroom Winnie could hear Flitwick's squeaky voice calling for order. Eventually only a faint orange haze filled the Charms classroom, leaving in its wake many confused students, a frantic professor, and the melodic, cackling laughter of Sirius Black.

Winnie glanced over to the desk he shared with Peter Pettigrew, expecting this to be another one of Black's stupid, disruptive pranks that would land him in detention tonight. Instead, she was surprised to find his laughter directed towards his deskmate, whose wand was still suspended in the air and whose facial expression was a mix of complete shock and naked humiliation. Pettigrew's nose and forehead was stained with orange dust and his lower lip was quivering.

"Wormtail, mate!" Sirius hooted around his laughter, clapping his friend on the back. "Aguamenti! We're supposed to be practicing Aguamenti!"

Pettigrew, whose face was now turning an angry shade of magenta (which clashed horribly with the orange) slowly lowered his wand and turned his horrified stare to Flitwick, who had the sense to end class a few minutes early.

Mary and Winnie, who sat at the desk closest to the door, hovered outside the door and waited for Lily, Dorcas, and Marlene to file out and join them. They were giggling to themselves about the incident when Lupin, Potter, and Black spilled out of the doorway, the latter two keeled over with their own laughter. Pettigrew, it seemed, would be remaining in the classroom to speak with Flitwick. Winnie accidentally found herself staring a moment too long at Black, who caught her eye and sent her a sly smile and a wink before moving on with his friends.

Winnie's face flushed, but the more concerning part was the ever-vigilant Mary, whose mouth had dropped open.

"Winifred Phipps! Did Sirius Black just _wink_ at you?" she yelped.

Uncomfortable with the attention and wanting to steer the conversation away from that particular topic before they were joined by the other three, Winnie rearranged her face until she hoped it looked indifferent.

"Probably," she shrugged. "He's always winking at some girl or another."

Mary looked unconvinced, but Winnie was saved from further explanation when their friends finally joined them and talk returned to Pettigrew's dismal Charms performance.

"Honestly," Marlene was saying as they made their way to the Gryffindor common room for their free period, "I can't understand how he even passed his Charms OWL."

"The same way Winnie passed her Transfig OWL," Dorcas sing-songed.

"Oi!" Winnie defended. "I could've passed just fine without Lily's help!"

"I'm still not clear why you even wanted to continue with Transfiguration, Win. I mean, not to be rude, but you're awful," Lily reasoned.

Winnie was glad to be walking behind her so she could reach out and swat the back of her head. Lily ducked defensively and whipped around. "I'm just saying what you already know is true!"

Winnie sighed in defeat. "Yeah, me _and_ McGonagall."

Dorcas, who was walking to her right, glanced at her. "What do you mean?"

Winnie heaved another dejected sigh. "When I met with McGonagall at the beginning of term, she made it pretty clear she knew my E in Transfiguration was the result of luck, extreme memorization, loads of tutoring from my charitable friends, and more luck. And I've done nothing in the class since to prove otherwise."

"Then why stick with it?" Lily repeated.

"Because I haven't the slightest bloody idea what I want to do after Hogwarts and what if I decide to be a Healer or a Curse Breaker?" Winnie agonized.

Her confession was met with silence from her friends, as if they were all unsure what to say. It carried on for a few more seconds before Lily suddenly burst into laughter, reminiscent of the way Black had laughed at his friend a few moments earlier.

"Lily!" Marlene reprimanded.

"I'm sorry!" she breathed. "I'm sorry, Win, I just- I just-...a Healer? A _Curse Breaker_?"

Winnie set her jaw indignantly, offended by Lily's laughter. "Excuse me, you minger! Would that really be so hard to believe?"

"Oh, Winnie, don't be so sensitive. It's got nothing to do with your intelligence, everyone knows you're clever. It's just that you don't have patience for anything other than potions or Quidditch and both of those jobs would be a very poor fit for someone as restless as you."

Lily was right, of course, but Winnie still shot her a flat look. Lily's unyielding honesty often put her at odds with her best friends.

"Ignore her, Win," Marlene interjected, always the first to put Lily back in her place when she got a little too straightforward. "I'm off to the library, Ancient Runes is giving me all sorts of trouble this term."

She gave a wave and sashayed in the opposite direction, her straight, long, honey-blonde hair swaying behind her as she went.

Lily took the group's pause to lock arms with Winnie and flash an apologetic smile. Winnie gave her arm a squeeze in response. Winnie knew Lily meant well, especially when it came to her dorm-mates. The five of them had gotten very lucky 6 years ago to all be sorted into the same house. They'd had their rocky moments, of course, and there was the Great Divide of Fourth Year when Lily and Marlene had drawn battle lines right down the center of their dorm room. It had been a miserable two months, but in the end they all came together stronger. Besides, they could've been like Alice's year above them. Winnie often felt bad that someone as sweet as Alice had to put up with some of the worst girls in the school.

Dorcas departed shortly after Marlene to find Benjy Fenwick, a fifth year Hufflepuff and her best friend since childhood.

A few minutes later saw Mary, Lily, and Winnie in the common room, taking their usual seats around the worn wooden table by the window.

Lazily, Winnie stuck her wand in the air and murmured "Accio throw," and a few moments later her cozy gold throw blanket her mom had made her landed gracefully in her lap. It was with great effort that, instead of lying her head on the table and dozing off, she pulled her Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook from her bag and began reading the chapter on Unforgivable Curses. It was decidedly not the cheery light reading she wished for. She was grateful, therefore, when Alice stopped by their table and interrupted a particularly gruesome description of the Cruciatus Curse and its side effects.

"Have you lot seen Potter anywhere?"

Winnie noticed Lily roll her eyes. "No, not since Charms. Sorry, Alice."

It was unusual that they hadn't seen James or any of his band of miscreants since leaving Flitwick's class. The four of them were normally sprawled over the squishy furniture in front of the fire, either napping and causing a scene.

"What'd you need him for?" Lily asked, examining her nails and trying very hard to sounds disinterested.

"McGonagall wanted me to pass along instructions for his detention tonight."

Lily rolled her eyes again, this time more dramatically. "Honestly, we've been back what? Two months? Potter's easily been in detention for more than half that, right?"

Winnie snorted, shooting her friend a sidelong glance. "I dunno, Lil. Have you been counting?"

Lily, realising it sounded like she'd been keeping tabs on James, immediately flushed and began quickly gathering up her books, mumbling and huffing rapidly under her breath.

"Well, whatever it is, it's too much, that lot always getting into some kind of trouble, really someone should step in or…" she continued to rant until her bag was full and she'd turned to walk up the stairs to their dorm.

Winnie sat back in her chair and watched Lily's frenzied exit with amused eyes, realizing with a smirk that a frenzied Lily wasn't something she got to see very often. Interesting.


End file.
